The information age we live and thrive in today is a component in our lives we can’t ignore. There is so much data that we can access with the invention of computers, and the internet information overload isn’t even a “short snippet” of a definition. This opening statement needs a much broader scope in analysis, but you get the picture.
I wanted to bring some pertinent facts of where the truth stands today in these biblical components that are hopefully still relevant in most societies everywhere. This is not an exhaustive study due to so many different definitions and opinions from many available sources. It’s easy to get bogged down researching any data for comparison analysis to find the real “truth” on any subject.
I wanted to start with the absolute undeniable truth that God is God and He created all things.
John 1: 3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”
God’s name is YHWH (Jehovah), one of His many Names that we true Christians worldwide believe and trust in. Our religious identification started in the 1st Century A.D. in Antioch, stated in the book of Acts located in the New Testament. The true identity of us is Born-Again, Bible-Believing Saints who place their trust, faith, and belief in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.
Religion:
The dictionary or internet definition of religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods; a particular system of faith and worship.” There are many (4,300 or so) religions, of course, and many gods associated with them. Most religions predate Christianity like Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and Hinduism, etc., along with secular, agnostic, and atheistic beliefs.
Religious history started with the invention of writing 5,200 years ago in 3200 B.C. approximately, according to Wikipedia. Man has always had to have a religious faith or god to look to or believe in for whatever reason. It’s innate, “built in him,” whether created or real. The atheists refute this, but they don’t have the guts to admit it. How can one look up to the sky on a clear night and see the heavens and also the beauty of the world in the daytime, and not believe that someone created and established all of it? Common sense comes into play here. We are limited in our knowledge of grasping the possibility of someone doing this.
That’s why we all should go to the source of knowledge, the Bible, God’s word that gives us the absolute truth and facts about His Creation of all things in what he wants us to know and understand. Ex: We know the timeline of man’s history back to Adam and Eve in the beginning of Genesis (1st book in the Old Covenant), but not before that when God first brought the earth into existence. It’s not relevant.
A brief overview:
So, what about the religion or faiths that exist in history that compare with Christianity, including ones in America? What about cults? Where do they come in?
Well, we know that the Jewish religion/faith started 3,500–3,800 years ago (depending on what source) with the Patriarch, Abraham, the father of the Hebrew faith.
Christianity was started because Yeshua (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah, came and voluntarily went to the Cross and died for the sins of man, so he could be redeemed back to God. Jesus was our substitute for us so that believers in Him would one day gain an entrance into heaven where we would serve him and have fellowship forever. Jesus died on the Cross, was placed in a tomb for three full days and nights, and was resurrected and came out of the tomb alive forevermore. He is at the right hand of the Father even now.
This is the tenant of the faith in Christianity. During that time of Jesus’ three-year ministry, up to and especially after his resurrection even until now, the Orthodox Jews (still do not believe Jesus was or is their Messiah) don’t accept our faith. They still hold to the Old Covenant or Testament for one of their biblical resources. There were then and are today some Jewish believers or converts to the Christian faith which are called Messianic Jews.
Islam started back in 610 A.D. with Mohammed and now has become the world’s second largest religion after Christianity with over 1.8 billion followers commonly known as Muslims.
Cults: not going into scriptural details and differences compared to the mainstream Protestant core beliefs.
Two Main Cults: (The general Christian belief on these two given denominations in America and other nations which are a small part of the Protestant faith).
Mormonism began in 1820-1830 by Joseph Smith.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses began in 1870’s with Charles Taze Russell.
Side note: I don’t have the authority or knowledge to discuss the Roman Catholic religion. No further comment.
So, aside from Judaism, Christianity holds first place compared to any faith beginning in the first century.
The Bible:
Here are the facts of God’s word today that we know about the Bible which came into existence, especially when the Gutenberg printing press was invented in 1455. We know that when men started to copy God’s word, He kept it preserved along the way so that it would be able to be available to man all over the world. Satan couldn’t stop it. With the printing press, that would be exactly what man needed to get it into the hands of people everywhere.
This is a short overview of the start of the Bible in Latin/English, and not an exhaustive study.
There was no complete translation of the Bible into Old English. Only large parts were printed, and this started with John Wycliffe. Parts of the Bible were translated from the Latin Vulgate into Old English by a few select monks and scholars. We know the printing started in England because certain men of faith, notably Tyndale and Luther, wanted God’s word to be read by common men and women. God’s word was for everyone, not just the Catholic Church.
List of Bible Translation History; not complete.
1384 AD: Wycliffe first to produce a handwritten manuscript copy.
1455 AD: Gutenberg invents the printing press.
1526 AD: William Tyndale’s New Testament; the First New Testament printed in the English language.
1535 AD: Myles Coverdale Bible; The First Complete Bible printed in the English language.
1539 AD: The Great Bible.
1560 AD: The Geneva Bible.
1568 AD: The Bishops Bible; The Bible of which the King James was a revision (80 books).
1609 AD: The Douay Old Testament is added to the Rheims New Testament of 1582.
1611 AD: The King James; originally with all 80 books; the Apocrypha was officially removed in 1885, leaving only 66 Books. The Translators, during the process, all believed the Holy Spirit led them to list the Apocrypha books, but they were not Scripture.
1885 AD: The English Revised version; the first major English Revision of the KJV.
And so on until now, with numerous translations.
The 1611 translators used the previous Bibles (before the King James) as a collection to put together the King James.
We here at RR for the most part, I believe, use the King James Bible for the authoritative Scriptures in our articles. It’s my personal opinion that the KJV Bible is the Word of God. It took seven years with over fifty scholars, led by the Holy Spirit’s guidance at the perfect time, to bring into existence the KJV for mankind. Two great books that I highly recommend reading that have exhaustive and complete details about the KJV Bible are:
BIBLE: The Story of the King James Version by Gordon Campbell 1611-2011
God’s Secretaries: by Adam Nicolson
With these two works of amazing scholarly input, you might change your mind about why the KJV is the inspired Word of God. Using common sense, why would God have more than one authoritative Book? He can get it right the First Time.
Prophetic Biblical Analysis:
On the Prophetic Biblical Analysis portion, my intent is to show a few key “End-Time Signs” that are so apparent that it’s obvious we are close to the Lord coming for His Church, the Bride of Christ. If Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, you are in this group. If not, I would have you seek out and call upon the Lord while He is near (Isaiah 55:6). Don’t delay; you don’t want to go through the terrible “Day of the Lord.”
The main key [end-time sign] was and is when the nation of Israel was born in a day (Isaiah 66:8). [Israel came back into existence on May 14, 1948.]
“Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
Since then, I, along with other believers, believe God’s Prophetic timeclock began ticking. We are on borrowed time, so to speak. If you hadn’t made a decision for Christ, you had better do it now.
Note what God says about Israel!
Psalms 121:4 “Behold. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
Zechariah 2:8 “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”
This statement by God himself in the Holy Scriptures has always been operative: past, presently, and into the future. YHWH! Always has his eye (as we say now 24/7 timewise) on His nation and His people according to His Sovereign rule.
Bible verses:
Others – not in any specific numerical order; just a few.
*Daniel 12:4 – Increase of Knowledge
*Revelation 13:17 – Ability to enforce the Mark of the Beast
*Matthew 24:37 – Violence and Sexual Immorality
*Luke 17:28-30 – Days of Lot Returned
*1 Timothy 4:1 – Rise in Spiritualism
*Luke 21:25-26 – Natural Disasters
*Matthew 24:7 – Earthquakes
*Daniel 12:4 – Unsealed prophecy
*Matthew 24:4-5, 11 – False Christ’s and False Prophets
*Matthew 24:6-7 – War
*Matthew 24:12 – Wickedness Abounds
*Matthew 24:14 – Gospel Preached to the World
*2 Timothy 3:1-5 – Perilous Times
*2 Timothy 4:1-5 – Sound Doctrine
*2 Thessalonians 2:3 – Man of Sin Revealed
We are in the latter days where the return of the Lord Jesus can come any second; even now, at any moment. The Biblical narrative is playing out right before our eyes. Look at Russia, Iran, and Turkey right at the border, jockeying into position to see who gets control of the region of Syria, ready to attack Israel which is prophesized in Ezekiel. No one or any nation or group can thwart God’s Sovereign Plan for these end times. The last “puzzle pieces” are rapidly falling into place as we “see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25, 37).
Look at verse 31: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
BTW, JEHOVAH is the only one true living God.
Jeremiah 10:10: “But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.”
Pay attention to the commas in verse 10; continuous, no break. His title “King” was then and is still now, and ever will be! The last part of that verse applies to the “Day of the Lord” or “Jacob’s Trouble (30:7).
The stage is set for the Antichrist-lawless one to arrive on the world stage soon after the Rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:17: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
We are in the Church Age of Grace (Gentiles and Messianic Jews make this up), which will end when the “fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25) – the rapture of the church. The “Times of the Gentiles” is not complete yet (It is political in nature and refers to the “nations” and the time period from the Babylonian captivity until the end of the Tribulation when Jesus returns to rescue the remnant of Israel).
Many Gentiles and Jews will turn to Christ during the Tribulation period with many being martyred. Any surviving that horrific time-period will go into the Millennial Kingdom which Jesus sets up in Israel, and they will repopulate the earth.
Read Revelation Chapter 1:
Yeshua is our Prophet-High Priest-King.
“Jesus is the One Which Was, and Is, and Is to Come”! (Revelation 1:4, 8, and 4:8). That is Eternal.
So if you wake up in the night considering where you are in the world, or during the daytime and you notice something drastic has happened that is totally chaos, the Rapture just happened. Scripture has come true. Of course, it’s possible nothing will be noticeable to you or others; but it will soon be. With the technology and informational access from the internet/media, it won’t take long to receive the news about people disappearing all over the globe. Some worldwide global event has taken place. You missed the Rapture, and now you have to endure the seven years of Tribulation the Bible mentioned.
IN CHRIST ALONE:
John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
With this, I will close, and pray that you will make a decision for eternal life with Jesus. The decision is yours and yours alone.
Blessings to you wherever you are, my friend.
All Scripture is from the King James Version
Shalom,
Clay Smith